So the NIGHT BEFORE we were to leave on a family trip to Brazil, we suddenly realize I have no visa. (my kids don't need one as they have brizilian citizenships/passports. Only my gringo ass)

This is bizarre because my wife usually does the organizing stuff for things like this and is usually impeccable. It just slipped her mind. The chances of getting a visa in less than 1 day are practically nil.

But I instantly had a funny feeling it was all gonna work. Or if it didn't I was trusting that I was needed somewhere else and the Tao was in control of our destinies

Anyways I fall asleep but my wife and her whole family are worried all night long. We skip out early the next day and show up like 1.5 hours before the Embassy opened and waited by the door to be first in line. The dude shows up and the FIRST thing he says is: "no visas can be issued for less than 20 days'. FUCK

We tell the situation and like Guantanamo guards they decide to torture us and make us wait for some reason to discuss the case.

The whole time there was absolutely nothing to do but wait and/or pray... and for some reason I felt inspired to pass the time chanting the Hare Krishna mantra quietly to myself:

It is a very weird chant at least for me as the desire to just keep repeating it is kind of bizarre.

Anyways while we're waiting and I'm chanting (I learned this later), some weird coincidences happened on my sister-in-law's facebook. Some post somewhere had synced up her and someone from the embassy, being brasilian and all.. so she puts in a good word, and then another weird encounter with a key person in the lobby downstairs (she caught my wife crying)

Eventually my chanting comes to a peak and while in the washroom I feel a burst of positive energy and I was sure they had made the decision to grant us a visa.

They call us in shortly after and ask us a bunch of questions to verify our story was true and then the dude says to me; "Well, against all odds, you have a visa".

We fuckin got it and made it back just in time to load the van to the airport and off we went.